Cannabis

How? How Much? When? For how Long?

Read our sections on dosing and tolerance for more information.

The effects you experience from a given dose of cannabis depends on many different details about the user, such as their weight, the speed of their metabolism, their past experiences and the situation in which the cannabis is consumed.

The same is true of every other drug, but with cannabis, it is especially difficult to identify one’s ideal quantity, due to the variety of strains, the way you consume it, and the distribution of the active compounds in the buds.

How you take it matters...

From the healthiest to the most harmful way:

Spray

This route of administration is the healthiest, but it can only be obtained with a medical prescription in countries where this is legal and sold. As such, it is barely used among recreational drug users, who for the most part are left with more calorific or carcinogenic alternatives. Sativex is the most widely-known spray. It contains high levels of both THC and CBD, and takes around 15 minutes to kick in.

Vaping/Vaporisation

Vaping involves heating up cannabis to release THC and other cannabinoids. Vaping is, crucially, a cleaner alternative to combustion (i.e. smoking/inhaling). The heating process creates a temperature cool enough to avoid creating the toxins that appear during combustion. Therefore, vaping is likely to reduce the coughing and throat irritation associated with smoking. It also doesn’t require any tobacco, and therefore may reduce tobacco addiction in cannabis users (3,7,8). This may be the most expensive method of administration, because of the price of the vaporiser. However, vaporising could be a cost-effective method in the long term8,9.

Read about how vaporisation works.

Eating

Eating is probably the easiest and safest way to consume cannabis. However, eating cannabis is not without dangers: users anticipate similar timing and effects to when they are vaping/smoking/inhaling, but the effects take much longer (up to 2 hours) when consuming edibles. Therefore, it’s tempting to re-dose before the high comes on. Be patient: if the first dose wasn't strong enough, try a higher dose another day. Re-dosing is the easiest way to overdose! People normally feel that edibles give them a “body high,” this is because the compounds in cannabis are slightly altered by the stomach, intestine and liver.

Inhaling

Cannabis can be inhaled through a pipe or a bong. While it's less harmful than smoking, it is easier to inhale greater quantities of smoke. Users should be careful not to breathe too deeply in order to regulate their high. Bongs with ice catchers can reduce the irritation of the throat as the ice cools down the smoke.

Smoking

Smoking cannabis is the most common way to consuming cannabis, even though it’s the unhealthiest. This method increases the probability of developing lung cancer because burning cannabis (with or without tobacco) creates toxins associated with cancer. In Europe, cannabis is often mixed with a much deadlier companion: tobacco. Adding tobacco to your cannabis increases the chances of throat irritation, and also increases the risks of cancer and dependence. We recommend to avoid smoking cannabis, but if you do instead of using tobacco you could use herbal smoking blends without nicotine and other toxins found in tobacco.

How much?

Smoking

Every time you try a new strain, or use a different supplier, smoke a smaller dose than you are used to, so you can notice variations in the effects and potency of the drug (we define potency as the amount of active ingredient required to produce a desired effect).

• Light dose: 0.05 g
• Common dose: 0.15 g
• Strong dose: 0.25 g

For someone consuming the average dose, a one gram bag of cannabis will last between 8–12 smokes, if you roll your joints with king skins and mix your weed with tobacco.

Eating

When you cook edibles, there are even more factors that influence the effects you'll get from the food. Some of these are: the strain you are using, whether you are using oil or butter, the time you leave it cooking, the strength of the heat (low heat, between 1-2 hours in a saucepan is optimum), and of course, your culinary skills...

• Light dose: 2.5 - 5 mg (THC)
• Medium dose: 5-25 mg (THC)
• Strong dose: 25 mg (THC)

When do the effects kick in?

The START time below is when you will usually begin to feel the effects of cannabis from the time when you first take it. DURATION is roughly the length of time you will experience the effects, after which the effects will start to wind down and you might start to feel the comedown effects.

Smoking

• START: 2-10 minutes
• DURATION: 2-8 hours

Eating

• START: 20-120 minutes (depends on stomach content)
• DURATION: 3-9 hours

Kief is the resin that falls off dry cannabis or what accumulates in grinders. It is the strongest part and contains high concentrations of THC. Watch out for this.

How often can I take it?

Consuming cannabis too often decreases the potency of this drug on your body. This may lead to consuming larger amounts of cannabis. Save cannabis for special occasions or events only, and use it sparingly.

Click for neuro info!

Tobacco and cannabis are often used together and have a unique relationship. In a recent worldwide survey, 65% of respondents said they smoke joints made with cannabis and tobacco. Studies indicate that the likelihood of developing cannabis dependence is increased by 5 times when cannabis is smoked with tobacco, as opposed to on its own e.g. smoking cigarettes and cannabis, and together, in joints. Often, users pair the two because the tobacco acts as an inexpensive filler. A hypothesis suggests that this increase in addictiveness may be a two-way street, with the cannabis enhancing your likelihood of developing nicotine dependence. Being addicted to nicotine is thought to go hand-in-hand with poorer psychiatric and psychosocial conditions. Finally, the World Health Organisation notes that smoking-related deaths are the most preventable kind in the world. So it’s imperative that alternative methods of consuming cannabis are used. However, smoking cannabis with tobacco is still the go-to method in most countries around the world. Written by Chandni Hindocha, PhD student at UCL